Assuming that it is important not only to implement the “hard core” EU legislation concerning the equality policy, but to implement it in the areas within competences of EU member countries as well, in 2008 the Warsaw Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, in cooperation with partner organisations from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine, implemented a project analysing the system of education in individual countries in the context of gender equality.

The objective of the reports prepared by Gender Studies from the Czech Republic, the Feminoteka Foundation from Poland, Aspekt from Slovakia and the Liberal Society Institute from Ukraine was to examine to what extent gender equality issues are represented in schools, teaching programmes, handbooks and during lessons conducted by teachers. Furthermore, the authors of the reports analysed the extent to which the state actively included those issues in the system of education, according to the principle of gender mainstreaming, which is one of the pillars of the EU’s equality policy. The publication presents brief versions of the national reports. Apart from the analysis of national systems of education and chosen issues, all reports contain recommendations for governments. The publication is addressed to decision-makers responsible for designing education policies, as well as to education experts, teachers and the media.